Arsenal’s January transfer window striker search proves fruitless but what if Ethan Nwaneri is the killer they lack? | Football Newsnews24

Arsenal supporters hoping for another reason to celebrate a day on from their 5-1 thrashing of Manchester City at the Emirates Stadium have been left disappointed. Deadline Day will come and go without the arrival of a new forward.

It is not for a lack of trying. Arsenal were exploring options throughout the window. Mikel Arteta said as recently as Friday that they were “trying everything”. But a bid for Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins failed and a suitable alternative did not materialise.

Some will accept the logic behind their decision to wait until the summer, when deals are easier to do and long-term targets become more attainable. Arteta has been consistent in saying the club would only act in January if the right player became available.

But there will be plenty who see it differently and it is easy to understand why. Arsenal’s attack looked short even before the injuries to Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Jesus. The former is not expected back until late March. The latter is out for the season.

Arsenal face a huge task to make up the gap to leaders Liverpool, who continue to set a ferocious pace, and they will have do it with their already-imperfect attack depleted. Arteta’s forward options right now bear a sharp contrast to those available to Arne Slot.

Arteta was keen to make that point himself after the recent draw with Aston Villa. And yet, Sunday’s thrashing of Manchester City was a reminder of how dangerous they still are.

Kai Havertz’s first-half miss fed the narrative around their need for a striker but his goal, clinically dispatched in the second half, was his 15th in all competitions this season. Arsenal will hope Martin Odegaard’s first open-play Premier League goal of the campaign leads to more.

It should be noted Arsenal set a club record for Premier League goals scored with 91 last season. Even amid their travails this term, their total of 49 puts them second only to leaders Liverpool. All the while, though, there has been a nagging sense that they lack a killer finisher to settle the marginal games.

Over the course of the last campaign, Arteta’s side failed to score in eight fixtures in all competitions, twice as many as eventual champions Manchester City. This term, they have already blanked on six separate occasions. Liverpool have only done so twice.

Of course, that wasn’t an issue on Sunday, and it was the scorer of their fifth who arguably offers the most cause for optimism. Ethan Nwaneri’s wonderful strike took him to seven for the season and offered further evidence that he might be the killer they have been lacking.

The 17-year-old’s goals have come from a total of only 647 minutes, at an average of 0.97 per 90. It is a far superior strike rate to any other Arsenal player. Jesus is next-highest on 0.52 per 90 minutes. Nwaneri also averages more shots than any of his team-mates, getting more on target and converting a higher percentage too.

His early goals this season came against modest opposition in the Carabao Cup but his capacity to affect games at the highest level was summed up by his contribution on Sunday.

Nwaneri had only been on the pitch for nine minutes when he cut inside from the right and found the corner from outside the box, only days after a near-identical strike on his first Champions League start in the win away to Girona. It is fast becoming a trademark finish.

Remarkably, his average of 0.97 goals per 90 minutes puts him ahead of any other Premier League player this season, including Newcastle’s Alexander Isak, Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah and Manchester City’s Erling Haaland as well as Chelsea’s Christopher Nkunku, who has been prolific, albeit in the UEFA Conference League.

There is a caveat, of course, in that Nwaneri has played considerably fewer minutes than those players. But he has been showing composure and quality to bely his years since his academy days, when, like now, he consistently shone against much older players.

Arteta is not the first coach to marvel at his ruthlessness in and around the opposition box and has even suggested that Nwaneri could play as a No 9 in future. “He has a tremendous ability to put the ball in the back of the net,” he said earlier this season.

For now, though, he is more likely to continue on the right side, where he is making a strong case to be considered first-choice in Saka’s absence following his return from injury, and where he is proving more than capable of generating a high volume of shots and goals.

Relying solely on Nwaneri would of course be a highly risky strategy by Arsenal, especially with his minutes still needing to be managed. But the strength of this side has always been in the collective.

They are the only top-eight side without a player in double figures for goals in the Premier League. Havertz’s total of nine puts him well short of Salah, Haaland and the rest. But no side has had more different scorers than Arsenal this season. Myles Lewis-Skelly, Nwaneri’s fellow academy graduate, became number 14 on Sunday.

Arsenal will need to continue sharing the goals around in the weeks and months ahead. They will need Raheem Sterling to step up in addition to Havertz and Odegaard. But Nwaneri might be the best bet when it comes to providing the qualities they lack, even if the odds are against them following a frustrating transfer window.